Oil Companies As Suppliers Of Fresh Drinking Water

Posted on July 30, 2008
Filed Under Markets |

Water is as precious as oil if you’re thirsty (and China for example has no drinking water left, everything has to be boiled) - so who do you turn to for fresh water? Maybe oil companies.

Environment & Energy Daily’s Greenwire makes the point that while oil companies are urged to enter into alien industries such as solar and wind power, their more natural target might be the water they’ve long been accustomed to drilling through.

Consider the case of EarthWater Global, a New York-based water company with roots in the petroleum industry.

For decades, Robert Bisson, the company’s founder and president, applied his geological knowledge and technical skills to squeezing out more oil and natural gas. But the enhanced seismic imaging he was using to find oil also led to this discovery: The world holds much more fresh water than we currently appreciate.
- Oil companies see opportunity in another precious commodity

As the story notes, just as Saudi Arabia stumbled across massive oil reserves in its search for water, Bisson’s team found massive quantities of water while searching for oil.

Some oil executives are thinking about the thousands of small oil wells that are pumping more water than oil, and how maybe this commodity can be brought into a deliver infrastructure for sale. And Schlumberger already has a groundwater services division.

I don’t look for oil companies ever to become beloved as benefactors of humanity, and certainly not if they evolve into the dramas of water delivery - but I find it promising to think that any industry can change to serve more sustainable ends, and still make profits.

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